She was more excited than I was. I gulped. I hated going to new schools. And I’d been to more than I could count. We never used to move a lot back when dad was alive.

My dad died when me and my brother were 12 years old and ever since my mother has moved us around the world. She likes to date my mum does. I think it’s just because she wants to get over dad. But every time she gets in a bad relationship we pack our stuff and we are off to some place we’ve never even heard of.

I have been to seven different schools over the past four years and it was starting to really annoy me. It was great to meet new people all the time but I hated the fact that I always had to say goodbye to them. We hadn’t stayed in a place long enough to make any real friends. Me and my brother that is.

Plus when you’re new, people only knew you as the new kid, they didn’t bother to learn your name and you get so much unwanted attention, it was downright annoying. Usually I tried blending in but did that ever work? Plus they always stared. A lot

And the one thing I hated the most was attention, and it looked like I was about to get another dose of it.

As I said, Great

“Cheer up Annie it will be fun” my brother Dom said putting his arm around me. His name was actually Dominic but he preferred Dom.

“Yeah right” This would not be fun. At all

“Oh come one where is your sense of adventure?” He grinned

“I left it back home” in my room under my bed and kept in a box padlocked tight.

He pouted which in a different situation would have been hilarious because he looked like an over grown baby but right now it wasn’t. I just wasn’t in the mood.

“What happened to you Annie? You used to be cool”

That’s me Antoinette uncool Moore

“Come on then, let’s get this over with” I grumbled getting out the car. He grinned.

We got out our trunks and headed toward the platforms.

Mum had done a lot of research on Hogwarts because No one in our family had come to Hogwarts before and apparently you had to go through the wall between platforms nine and ten to get to the Hogwarts express, I wasn’t too sure, mum wasn’t exactly an expert.
Dom was so going first.

“Dom you go first”

“Why, chicken?” he flashed a grin at me

I rolled my eyes “well if mum is wrong about this then you will crash and I will laugh”

“Thanks, thanks a lot Annie, you cut me deep, you cut me real deep” he put a hand on his heart in mock sadness.

He was only six so he just started out at Tiny tots magic academy. I hated leaving him behind but at least he still got to go to the same school.

“Hurry up Antoinette or you’ll miss the train!”

My mother is such an exaggerator. The train leaves at 11 0` clock and it was barely even 10:30 yet. I still had half an hour to board the train. I sighed.

I started to push my trolley. I was going to crash, I could just see it. I was about a meter away from the wall when my brothers face pops out in the middle of the wall and yells “BOO!”

Everybody knows that whenever someone yells boo they are trying to scare you and it never works because Boo is simply not a scary word but it will never EVER fail to work on me.

The same trick over and over again and I always fall for it. So when the moron I have for a brother stuck his head through the barrier and yelled boo I screamed and crashed into him on the other side.

Luckily I had a soft landing and Dom? Well, he got a face full of hard ground. Sucked in!

“Dom you idiot”

“Annie get off me your hurting my male parts” he whined

“Well that’s what you get for being a dick head” I said smugly, but I got off him and dusted myself off. Now my white dress had patches of grey on it.

Thanks a friggen lot Dom.

“What are you two doing over here?” called mums angry voice. As she and Andre` appeared through onto the platform.

We both put our hands in the air and said “it wasn’t me” at the same time. Then we both looked at each other and laughed
.
Oh and in case you hadn’t figured it out already, we were twins.
So when we both smiled and laughed so did Andre` and when Andre` laughed mum always let out a grin.

“You smiled we’re off the hook” Dom said pointing at mum laughing.
Mum just shook her head smiling to herself. Probably thinking what smart arses her kids were. I think I was the smart and Dom was the arse, as usual. I grinned

You know when you get that prickly feeling on the back of your neck, and it feels like someone’s watching you. Yeah well I got that. And it just came out of nowhere.

I looked around the grin slowly sliding off my face. I was being stared at. I blushed. I hadn’t even had my first day yet and someone had already noticed the “new girl”. The boy I caught staring looked about my age, tall with dark black hair. He turned away, seeming embarrassed.

I brought my attention back to my mum who was fussing over Dom.

“Dom did you even brush your hair this morning it looks like you just got up and tuck in your shirt it looks messy like that.” She said tugging at the hem of his shirt.

“Mum it’s a t-shirt it’s not supposed to be tucked in and what is wrong with my hair?!” he demanded

I just rolled my eyes and smiled at Andre` who grinned cheekily back at me, dimples and all. He got mums dimples and so did Dom. you’d think that because we were twins I would get them too, but no.

Me and Dom weren’t identical either. He had brown hair like dad and I got red hair like mum. Although hers was more fiery red and mine was auburn. Andre` got mums hair too and dads curls. Seems like he got all the good genes.

I watched Dom dragged his trunk down the platform and turned to see mum watching me.

Great, here it comes. The lecture. And it was always me who got the lecture, never Dom. Maybe because I was the most reliable and apparently it was my job to make sure my brother didn’t do anything crazy like blow up a toilet. Which he has already done before mind you, numerous times.

“I want you to keep an eye on your brother for me”

Oh yes mother, because I have nothing better to do than keep an eye on my sixteen year old brother when I am only sixteen myself.
Only I didn’t say this. Because then I would be here for another half an hour and would miss the train completely due to mums agonizing lectures.

“Well, I would. But he never listens to me and the only person he listens to is you Annie, so keep him inline okay?”

“Sure thing mum” I lied

“Okay, have fun, do your homework, write to me when you get there okay, I love you” Mum said quickly as she enveloped me in a hug.

“I will, love you too mum” I choked out. I wasn’t going to see mum until Christmas so I got a bit teary.

“Why is she crying?” Doms voice floated from behind us.

I was having a moment

“I was not crying” I said hastily wiping my eyes on my sleeve.
He raised his eyebrow

Real smooth Antoinette

“She is just going to miss her mum, isn’t she!” mum said pinching my cheeks

“Mum!” I pulled my face out of her grip. How embarrassing. I looked around quickly. No one seemed to be paying any attention to us.
Good

I ruffled Andre`s hair while Dom hugged mum.

“Be a good boy Andre` and look after mum”

He nodded, his curls bobbing up and down. “I’m aaawlways a good boy” he smiled dimply

I grinned; I was going to miss him.

“Come on Annie, time to go” Dom said

We got on the train together and Dom pulled up my trunk. He must have already left his trunk in a spare compartment.

Then we waved from the window until the train started to move. Mum and Andre` waved enthusiastically until the train rounded a corner and they disappeared from view.

I looked up, the time I hated most was finding a compartment. Naturally you didn’t want to sit with people you didn’t know, but then you didn’t want to sit alone either. I guess it was lucky I have Dom. We would look like loners together.

“Let’s look down this way first” I said hauling up my trunk and starting down the corridor.

“Wait Annie”

I turned around, Dom was looking uncomfortable. I knew that look. It meant Dom had something he had to tell me.

“I already have a compartment with some friends” he said with his hand on the back of his neck.

“Already! You made friends already?” He was so charismatic.

“Well I knew this one guy, Freddie Weasley, I used to play quidditch against him and well he introduced me to some of his friends, so I was gonna sit with them.” He said looking at the ground.

My heart dropped. I had never started off my first day at a new school without Dom.

“If you want I can stay with you” He said quickly, looking up.

“No, its okay, I’ll find a compartment” I said looking away.

“Annie-“

“Don’t worry about me Dom, I’m not a baby anymore, I can do things without you” I knew it wasn’t true but I thought maybe hearing the words would make me feel better. They didn’t

“Alright then, but how about we meet back here at lunch and if you haven’t made any friends by then you can come and sit with me”
I know he was trying to be kind but it sort of felt like he thought that I couldn’t make any friends at all. Sure I had problems in the past, only because I was shy though. I just brushed away his comment, I know he meant well.

“Sure Dom, I guess I’ll see you at lunch then” I said forcing a smile. He narrowed his eyes. He knew how I felt. I quickly turned around and continued down the corridor before he could stop me.

He didn’t though. I reached the end of the corridor and turned around, he was gone.

I dragged my trunk with difficulty down into the next carriage, going past compartment after compartment, all of them were full.

Some people stared as I past, I ignored them but I could still see them whisper to each other out of the corner of my eye. Most people didn’t acknowledge me at all. I preferred it that way.

By the time I reached the next carriage my arms were aching. I had to stop so I rested my trunk against the wall and stretched my fingers out in relief. That trunk was no feather. I leant against the wall myself and looked around. I was starting to think there were no free compartments at all.

I looked down at my dress; it still had flecks of grey from when Dom made me fall. Just as I expected everyone wore muggle clothes on the platform. My plain white dress didn’t look so out of place

.I looked down at my shoes, the ballet flats mum bought me for my birthday last year. I could feel the rumble of the train beneath them.
Then suddenly the train lurched, pushing me to the train floor where I landed hard on my elbows. Pain shot up my arm. I gasped painfully. It felt like someone stabbed me in both elbows.

I sat up and looked around. My trunk had been knocked over and the content was lying all over the floor. I ignored my throbbing elbows and began throwing things messily into my trunk. My first day was not starting off good.

Are you alright there?” Said a voice. I looked up; above me was a boy around my age, with messy black hair and brown eyes. With a jolt I realised it was the same boy I caught staring at me on the platform.

I looked down at my bruised and bloody elbows.

“Oh um I’m fine”

He smiled “you know that doesn’t look that fine to me” he motioned to my elbows.

I shrugged “it’s okay, I just fell, I’ll be fine” I did my best to assure him. Surely he might just leave now and let me be.

He didn’t say anything though; he turned his attention away from me and pulled out a wand from his jeans pocket. He pointed the wand at me. I automatically froze. What was he going to do, curse me or something? I didn’t even have my wand on me. It was in my trunk. Which was now on the ground. Who knows where it rolled.

The boy whispered something under his breath and my elbows stung for a second and then the pain was gone. I looked down, they were completely healed.

“Thanks” I felt my cheeks heating up in embarrassment as he knelt down to help me. And to think I thought he was going to curse me. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t at Durmstrang anymore. Out of all the schools I’d been to Durmstrang was by far the worse.

“No problem, so you must be new” He said conversationally as he picked up my cauldron and placed it in my trunk.

“Is it that obvious?” I questioned. So much for blending in

He half-smiled and shrugged “just a little bit”

I sighed and looked down “just great” I said it more to myself than him but it seemed he heard me.

“I guess you don’t like being the new girl much huh?” He looked at me and I saw that his eyes were not just brown but the exact colour of chocolate.

“Not really, no”

“I guess I wouldn’t like it much either, but I’ve never been to a different school other than Hogwarts, What school did you come from?” He asked. It sounded like he actually wanted an answer but did anybody actually care?

“My last school was beauxbatons and before that it was durmstrang and before that it was The Witchery Academy” I flushed, I’d been
talking too much. . “Well you get the idea”

He probably didn’t even care

But as I thought that he looked up in interest, holding my scales in one hand and a pair of white gloves in the other. “So you move around a lot”

“Yeah, I’ve been to seven different schools since I was twelve” I said and threw in the last item into my trunk, my wand.

The boy shut my trunk and clicked the locks shut. “But you don’t like moving do you?”

“I hate it, just when I make friends it’s time to pack up and move again.”

He gazed at me curiously then held out a hand. I hesitated for a second but allowed him to pull me up.

“So where were you headed before you took a trip to Florida?”

I rolled my eyes at his lame joke and he grinned.

“Well, I was looking for a spare compartment”

He lifted up my trunk and dragged it behind him down the carriage. I hurried after him. Surely he had somewhere else to be then helping me look for a compartment.

I grabbed the back of trunk forcing him to stop. He turned to look at me.

“It’s okay you know. You can go back to your friends now. I won’t have trouble looking for a compartment”

“It’s okay too you know, I don’t exactly have anything better to do” he continued walking down the carriage but I stopped him again.

“Don’t you want to see your friends; you probably haven’t seen them all summer”

He shrugged “nah I see Freddie all the time and tony is a jerk, what am I missing?”

I sighed, defeated. I followed him down the end of the very last carriage when he stopped. “Found one!” he grinned in triumph.

He loaded my trunk on the luggage rack without difficulty. He turned to face me. “Well I guess that’s all then, unless you got a bruised knee I can take care of?” He grinned

I pretended to look down at my knee “no all good I think, Thank you so much for helping me”

“No problem, I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name”

“It’s Antoinette, Antoinette Moore”

“I guess I’ll see you soon Antoinette Moore” then with a grin he disappeared out the door.

I made to sit down but then I remembered, he never did tell me his name. I opened the door, but he was gone.

This chapter was originally longer but i decided to split in half. Tell what you think. love Antoinette? hate her? i want to know.
Also loving the banner made by chocolat @ TDA. is Wondering if my readers are liking it too?
Veela_is_me